European airlines see increased cargo demand in July

Major airlines including Lufthansa, IAG Cargo and Finnair saw airfrieght volumes increase year-over-year for the month as well as year-to-date, according to recent figures from the air carriers.    Major European airlines continue to see growth in demand for air cargo services, according to the latest figures from each airline.
   Lufthansa, IAG and Finnair all saw increased airfreight volumes in July, with Lufthansa increasing cargo traffic by 8.4 percent year-over-year, beating its year-to-date growth of 7.7 percent. Cargo traffic to the Americas grew 7.9 percent while cargo traffic to Asia and the Pacific grew 8.4 percent. The airline reactivated one of its MD-11Fs in June and as a result experienced its busiest July since 2011.
   IAG Cargo saw year-over-year growth of 6.7 percent in July, making it the best July since 2012. The airline said demand was greater in the Asia Pacific region following weaker conditions in the same period last year.
   Finnair saw cargo traffic increase 12.7 percent while year-to-date demand went up 4.3 percent.  Air France-KLM saw cargo demand increase only 0.7 percent year-over-year compared with its year-to-date growth of 1.5 percent.
   Last month, Air France-KLM announced it would acquire a 31 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic for 220 million British pounds (U.S. $283.44 million), while Delta and China Eastern acquired 10 percent each in Air France-KLM for a total of GBP 751 million.